The present invention relates to a bumper system having a rigid beam, a plastic energy absorber, and a fascia support.
Many vehicle bumper systems have been developed that incorporate a beam and energy absorber for distributing and controlling impact energy. Fascia is often mounted to the vehicle for aesthetically covering the bumper system using brackets attached at various locations and to various front-end components. However, this results in a multitude of parts, each requiring separate inventories and separate manual attachment to the vehicle, each adding to a total cost of the vehicle. Also, each additional brackets potentially results in dimensional variations, and quality control problems. It is desirable to provide a more integrated fascia mounting system with fewer parts, and where the support is more directly off of the bumper system instead of off of other vehicle front end components located behind the bumper system.
At least one prior art bumper system incorporates an energy absorber made from a vacuum thermoformed sheet. However, it is difficult to provide closely controlled attachment sites for mounting fascia on a vacuum thermoformed sheet due to process limitations of vacuum thermoforming processes. Hence, there is a need for a bumper and energy management system that integrates the advantages of the low cost and flexibility of thermoformed parts with a fascia support structure that provides optimal accuracy and secure attachment sites for fascia.
Thus, a bumper system having the aforementioned advantages and solving the aforementioned problems is desired.